Dear All,
My apologies for not having sent out the last update to some of you — half of my list didn’t get it because, Gmail. I fear that half of my list won’t get this one either, but it’s at least on the website as well, like all the others. I’ve finally sorted through the whole Mailchimp process (there was some confusion about whether or not I could use my original email until I figured out how to frame my question to the undoubtedly beleaguered tech help person who responded to my many queries). I now have to transfer all my contacts over to Mailchimp and, of course, what should be a really simple process — is not. This is not so much anyone’s fault as the fact that…well, okay, it’s Big Tech’s fault that nothing is ever as simple as it seems to be.
I’ve been delayed in writing and updates for a few reasons. One is, honestly, the fatigue that’s overtaking all of us. Another is that I’ve not had a break for a really long time: the last time I even left Cook County was 2003.
But other reasons are not all bad: There is light at the end of the tunnel for a couple of projects as well as some lingering personal matters. Who knows if rocks will tumble inwards in an avalanche and close off the exits, but I remain hopeful about things. It did mean that the complications about the listserv combined with the new tasks now ahead of me in my personal life left me scrambling to find time for everything. I felt awful for not having produced a new piece recently but I’m calming down about that. This week, I’m focused on figuring out the path forward without going completely bonkers from the stress. There will be new material by the next time you get an update!
In the meantime, in case you don’t see an update please do look for it on the website. The next one is scheduled for October 5. Also, do feel free to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you’d like to friend me on FB, I’m game, but I do ask that people write and let me know how they know me and my work: it’s my (not entirely foolproof) way of making sure I don’t end up with trolls harassing me on my wall because they don’t get my politics or because I provide an easy way for them to vent whatever emotions they’re going through. It’s easy to deal with trolls on Twitter — it’s less intimate and I can just block whoever is trying to get into The Fight That Broke the Internet with me. Anyway: some of my dearest and closest friends are people I met on the internet and I still haven’t met many of them but we have regular offline and phone conversations (when the Pandemic is more bearable and when I can finally travel again, there will be a million meetups), so it’s not as if I have any old-fashioned sense that the internet isn’t “real.” I actually like social media for a million reasons, and I think most of us have a healthy relationship to it—media would have you believe otherwise with its inflating of matters like “Cancel Culture” but, really, most of us are here for the cat pics and the many flashes of Jason Momoa.
Things are a bit stressful right now, but I’m also okay with that. If I want to make a lot of movement on various fronts, there’s going to be a certain amount of stress for some months and, hopefully, I’ll come out at the other end with a better path forward than I’ve had for two decades. And when this is at least kinda, sorta over, I’ll give myself a very real vacation, whatever that looks like in The Time of the Plague.
Stay well, stay safe, mask up, keep distancing, and get vaccinated. We will never see an end to this until we adopt a multi-pronged approach, as Canadian doctor Brooks Fallis reminds us.
POSTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
Podcast with Dale of Evergreen Review.
Podcast with Escape from Plan A.
“On Caroline Calloway and Whole Foods.”
And in case you missed it, here’s the Update from August 31.
Finally: I just discovered Eunice de Souza (to the shock and horror of many of my friends who wonder how I never encountered her before). Here’s her breathtaking “It’s Time to Find a Place,” and here’s an obituary that includes her lovely “Advice to Women,” which is actually about cats. And here’s another obituary with a photograph of her with her beloved parrot.
Photo: “Drive,” 2021, Yasmin Nair